The present invention relates generally to the field of inventory control and more particularly to the management of both instant and online lottery ticket sales.
Lottery vendors (e.g., convenience stores, supermarkets, gas stations, gift shops, bars, restaurants and liquor stores) traditionally offer for sale both instant lottery tickets and online lottery tickets.
Instant lottery tickets (also commonly known in the art as scratch tickets or scratch cards) are typically constructed from a semi-rigid cardboard card that is at least partially covered with a removable coating. As part of the game, the user is required to scratch off the removable coating (e.g., using a coin, fingernail or other similar instrument). With the coating removed, printed matter provided on the card instantly notifies the user whether he/she has won a particular prize (e.g., cash).
Online lottery tickets (also commonly referred to as the daily lottery or jackpot lottery) are typically printed at the point of purchase and include, among other things, a plurality of selected numbers. As part of the game, a single supervised drawing is undertaken at a predetermined time to establish the winning numbers for the particular game. If the purchaser has the winning numbers printed on his/her ticket, he/she is entitled to a particular prize upon redemption. This type of lottery ticket is commonly referred to in the art as an online lottery ticket because the register used to print the customer ticket transmits the particulars of the ticket sale to a central database for the entity managing the drawing.
Due to the growing popularity of all types of lottery games, it has become increasingly difficult for individual lottery vendors to adequately manage (i.e., track, audit) the large quantity of daily lottery sales. In particular, instant tickets are presently provided in a large number of different game formats (e.g., as representing a particular sport, slot machine, etc.) and at various prices to purchase (e.g. $1, $2, $5, $10). For each game, a plurality of individual cards are typically manufactured and sold to vendors as a single book (each ticket being sequentially identified with a unique numbering code), wherein individual cards can be removed from the remainder of the book by tearing along a preformed line of perforation. As can be appreciated, it has been found that certain vendors often have as many as one hundred instant ticket books available for purchase at the same time.
Online lottery ticket sales are traditionally managed in an automatic fashion by the register used to print the online lottery tickets. However, the traditional means for managing (i.e., tracking, accounting) instant ticket sales is through the use of manually-maintained instant ticket inventory logs. An inventory log may include, among other things, (1) the name and/or code associated with the particular game, (2) the book number associated with each active game book, (3) the purchase price of each ticket in each game book, (4) the number/code associated with the next available ticket in each game book at the beginning and end of each employee shift, (5) the money in vendor register at the beginning and end of each employee shift, and (6) information relating to winning tickets that have been redeemed.
It has been found that maintaining a manual log for a large quantity of active instant ticket books is considerably burdensome and time-consuming for a lottery vendor to undertake (often taking as long as 60-120 minutes to complete per shift). Furthermore, because cash received from online lottery tickets and instant lottery tickets is commonly co-mingled into a common register, means for accurately managing each form of lottery sales is rather demanding. However, it should be noted that the accurate daily management of lottery sales is essential in order to deter against ticket theft (e.g., by unscrupulous employees).